Candida in the Respiratory Tract Secretions of Critically Ill Patients and The Efficacy of Antifungal Treatment

The purpose of the study is to determine whether the effect of treating Candida spp. isolated in the respiratory tract secretions of patients with a clinical suspicion of ventilator associated pneumonia (VAP) on clinical outcomes will be feasible and supported by biomarker data obtained.

Candida spp. is commonly retrieved from microbiologic specimens of ICU patients with suspected VAP. It has been associated with increased systemic inflammation and worse clinical outcomes. This association may be due to the propensity for Candida to colonize those who are sicker, who have increased levels of systemic inflammation and worse clinical outcomes. However, an alternate possibility is that Candida is more than a colonizer and is responsible for the clinical and biochemical features observed. The only way to clarify the pathogenic role of Candida from this patient population is to treat the organism and see if patients improve compared to an untreated group. The purpose of this research program is to conduct such a study to determine if Candida in respiratory tract secretions should be routinely treated in critically ill patients. Since a definitive randomized controlled trial designed to demonstrate a reduction in mortality would be large, require the commitment of large amount of resources including both time and money, the investigators propose to first conduct a small pilot feasibility study. Eligible patients will be randomized to receive antifungal treatment with anidulafungin or placebo. Following enrollment, study treatment (or placebo) will be started as soon as possible. When the Candida or yeast organisms have been speciated and/or a susceptibility profile is known, the study medication will be adjusted based on susceptibility patterns. The investigators propose to treat with antifungal therapy for a total of 14 days. Patients will be followed daily for their entire stay in ICU or till day 28, whichever comes first. For patients discharged from the ICU to the ward, they will be followed until study treatment is complete (i.e. day 14). Mortality will be determined for the ICU stay, hospital stay and at 90 days. The investigators will record admission and discharge dates to ICU, step down units, and to hospital. All patients will have 13 mL of blood/day drawn at baseline, day 3, day 8 and at the end of the treatment period on day 14 (or last day of treatment). The samples will be prepared on site and shipped to a central lab for processing. The investigators will use the blood specimens to measure markers of inflammation (C-reactive protein, Procalcitonin, and Interleukin-6 and others as determined by the investigators), markers of candida presence (b-glucan and other potential future markers) and markers of immune dysfunction (to be determined by investigators).